Little Tissue Packet Konata
by Zokusho
Summary: Classic Hans Christian Andersen story, and after reading Namine's angel's version I decided to reupload this one, which I wrote in 2009.


It was cold, gloomy winter night in the city of Kasukabe, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and the darkness, Konata Izumi roamed through the streets. After she had failed to get into college, her father had started drinking and had eventually failed to pay his loans. So they were evicted from their house. Now, she was homeless, sleeping in whatever warm place she could find. However, today the strict policy against loiterers went into effect, and homeless people would not be tolerated in train stations and other public places. Such sights were thought to blemish the city's reputation. The only job Konata could find was handing out packets of tissue with advertisements. But today, people seemed to avoid her and nobody had accepted even a single packet during the entire day. Perhaps it was because Konata had not been able to bathe or get clean clothes for a few days. Snowflakes fell on her once beautiful, long blue hair, which was now a dirty tangle. Her runny nose and constant coughing didn't help either. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, mechanically handing tissues at people, who hurried around her and tried to avoid even looking at her.

Lights were shining from every window, and hundreds of neon lights brought color into the night, but they offered her no warmth. Appetizing smells wafted from the restaurants – thanks to fans deliberately placed just for that effect. Finally, Konata found a narrow, abandoned alley. She sat down behind some concrete flower boxes, which were now empty and covered in snow. Konata took off her coat, placed her foot onto it and tried to wrap it around her wasted body. The worn-out, tattered fabric could not keep off the cold. She couldn't go to her employer, having failed to hand out any tissues – the thought of simply dumping them didn't even occur to her. But the cold got worse and worse. Finally, she started ripping the tissue packets open and stuffed the soft pieces of paper into her clothes and around her. They did warm her, but she failed to notice how they also soaked up the melting snow, and the dampness seeping even more warmth off of her frail body.

While feeling slightly warmer, she reminisced over her happy days in high school. Back then, she had her own, warm room, with a huge collection of manga and anime, TV, and a modern game console. She had not realized how lucky she was and that she had been living in a virtual paradise. Then, she even had had lots of friends; Kagami, Tsukasa, and Miyuki being the dearest of them. And Kagami … the only friend who did not turn her back at her when the difficulties started. Not right away, at least. She was the only one who actually called her and had sounded worried. But since they lost their home, Konata's cell phone broke and she could not get a new one. She had never bothered to memorize Kagami's number nor even the college she was attending to – because she had that information in her phone or she could look it from the Internet – so now Konata could not contact Kagami. Besides, would she even care about a homeless outcast? Nobody else did.

Oh, what fun they had had in high school. And she had thought it was a drag. Being forced to wake up early every morning, having to spend all day at school, learning useless things, when she would have liked to play games, watch anime and read manga instead. Still, if she could change her life back to that now, it would have been a thousand times better than this.

An hour passed, an hour of extreme cold, making Konata's teeth rattle and her losing all feeling in her hands and feet. Yet, she slowly started to feel warm again. In fact, it felt as if she was suddenly taking a hot bath. She took the coat off of her shoulders – it felt far too warm now. As the warmth spread to her entire body, she started to feel very, very sleepy. Just before falling asleep, she thought that someone approached her. It was a girl, in a Ryōō high school winter uniform, and with two long, lilac pigtails. Konata smiled, and whispered, "Kagami …"

A passerby found a curled-up body at the dawn. A small, young adult woman was curled up in the snow, with a smile on her frozen face. Her coat was laid down beside her, and everywhere around, dozens of opened tissue packets.


End file.
